“I feel like a slug now. You do so much first thing, and all I do is dress and feed my face.”
“No coffee at home?”
“I grabbed juice and cereal. But this is good.” She took another sip, and tried a heavy hint. “I think coffee with someone is way better than coffee alone.”
“Agreed.”
So far, so good. “So...last night.”
This time he just waited, and damn it, now she wasn’t sure what to say.
It wasn’t like her to keep hedging, though—how was it he’d described her? Balls to wall? Well, it was time for her to find her balls. “First, I’m sorry.” He looked receptive, so she continued. “I was really enjoying things last night—”
“Things?”
“Us talking. Dinner together. Just chilling.”
He nodded.
“Then it all went wrong and that’s on me. I know it.” All she got was more patient listening from him. She cleared her throat, hated that she’d done something so clichéd, and forged on. “This is all new for me. Visiting and being friendly and everything.”
“I heard you on the phone with friends-who-are-like-family, remember?”
“Yeah, but that’s just it. For the longest time, it was just me. Then it was me and Kennedy, even though Kennedy wasn’t always on board. Then she got hooked up with a stud and he sort of became a package deal. With his brother and sister, too, and their dad, and then their others...”
“Others?”
“The special people they hooked up with. You know, wives and husband and all that.” Knowing it sounded like she was complaining, Jodi regrouped. Fingers tightening around the coffee cup, she carefully formulated her words. “That was a huge adjustment, getting used to them. But like I told you, they helped me get a job and find a purpose and all that. They’re really good people, and I... I wasn’t used to good people. Especially people who knew about my...” Words were so damn hard. She settled on, “Background.”
Seconds ticked by. Though Hunter didn’t change his deceptively relaxed posture in the chair, she felt his alertness ratcheting up, sensed the probing way he watched her.
It was so quiet, she could hear Turbo’s breathing deepen into sleep.
Jodi drew an uneven breath that didn’t really help. “I told you that I had a job helping women. That I’d been a victim. Well, like you said last night, it’s easier to understand when it’s something you’ve gone through.”
“You and these women had gone through the same thing?”
The softly spoken, no-nonsense way he asked that helped her to spit it out. “No. They were trafficked.”
Slowly sitting forward, Hunter put his coffee cup on the table. His gaze held hers, searching, wanting something she couldn’t decipher. He seemed to be waiting, taut with suspicion.
“I wasn’t.”
His breath released with relief and he gave a careful nod. “I’m glad.”
That made her laugh. “Don’t start celebrating, okay?”
Without a word, he laid his hand, palm up, on the table before her—a silent invitation to share his strength.
God, she wanted to. Her palm tingled with the idea. “I’ve never held hands with anyone.”
“Try it. You might like it—and if you don’t, you’re free to let go anytime.”
His hand looked so large, easily twice the size of hers, with rough-tipped fingers, calluses and so much strength. With a feeling of inching toward the edge of a cliff, she loosened her hold on the mug and awkwardly placed her hand in his.
Hunter smiled, a beautiful smile that made her heart slam into her ribs as his fingers curled loosely around hers.
His thumb moved over her knuckles. “If you don’t want to tell me, I understand and I won’t pressure you. We’re here, though, and there’s no judgment.”
If he knew the things she’d done, he would definitely judge.
Would he deem her a hero or a monster? She wasn’t sure.
Oddly, holding on to him did help. She stared at their hands, instead of his too-perceptive eyes, when she said, “So, I was held prisoner for a while by this sick, twisted dick who liked to...” A vise seemed to clench around her throat, strangling off the confession.
Though he tensed all over, Hunter’s thumb continued to stroke, gently, with encouragement.
She tried to meter her breathing but couldn’t.
She tried to keep her eyes from getting glassy but already her vision blurred.
Her teeth clenched. Her heart thundered. Without realizing it, she ground out, “He liked hurting me, locking me in the basement without food, and I...” She gasped, unable to get air into her burning lungs. Oh, God, it was all closing in on her, memories slamming her, stomping her down.
She wasn’t aware of what was happening, but suddenly, Hunter was standing and she was held carefully against him, and he was whispering, over and over again, “Jesus, Jodi, I’m so sorry. So fucking sorry. You’re safe now. You’re with me. You’re safe.”
Safe now.
With him.
Yes, yes she was.
It dawned on her that her hands were on his shoulders, her fingers digging into his muscles, though he didn’t complain. Her cheek rested against his warm chest, and that light covering of chest hair felt really nice.
The scent of him... She’d never smelled anything like it, but it encouraged her to draw a slow, deep breath.
Darkness receded. Her calm gradually returned. Outside, a streak of lightning cut through the gray morning sky, followed by the low rumble of thunder. “I should go before it starts pouring again.”
The comforting stroke of Hunter’s hands paused on her back, then continued after a brief hug. “I have a better idea.”
“If it has anything to do with me being plastered against you, acting all wimpy, forget it. This is an oddity not likely to happen again.” She wasn’t sure how it had happened this time. She hated it, hated her own weakness...
Yet she didn’t step away. Since she was already there, she didn’t want to. Not now. Not anytime soon.
“I was going to suggest we spend the day together. Have breakfast. Shop for groceries and whatever you need for your house, or more security if you want. You mentioned Russ King and this Remmy prick. We could check out his property together.”
Laughing just a little with a residue of nervousness from opening up, losing her shit, and being in a new and unusual, but comforting, position with a guy, she said, “Every time you mention Remmy, you call him a name.”